


For Want of a Hero

by springbreeze



Category: Senyuu.
Genre: Senyuu SQ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 16:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3074033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springbreeze/pseuds/springbreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alba faces the last boss, at the last stage, and has never more wanted to lose. What-If.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Want of a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> SQverse. That should be all the warning you need. I’m not sure where this came from… Don't take this too seriously.

_Why?_

_Because these are the rules of this world._

* * *

It was something she should have known from the start—no, she  _had_ known it, but simply hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. The line that divided them into two worlds, never meant to overlap. Always and forever opposing forces. Yet somehow, they had found a comfortable, vague, indistinct boundary that allowed innocuous love and happiness to trickle through from the vast well they had filled up during their journey, to form the temporary dream that was drawing to a long overdue end.

From her seat overlooking the length of the throne room, she stood at last—carefully, deliberately, every movement made with quiet purpose as she stared at the figure facing her. In this space, where he and she were the only ones present, her voice echoed a thousand times louder.

“Well met, hero. You’ve finally arrived.”

He shifted uncomfortably at her flat tone, but made no move to attack. “Ruki—” he began.

“Do not call me by that name, Hero Alba.” His name and title, uttered sharply, distantly. She took a step forward, and another, the ragged black cloak flowing with her pace. “I am the third Demon Lord Rchimedes.” The nickname belonged to another time, another life.

“Ruki,” Alba pressed stubbornly, desperation cracking his voice. “We don’t have to fight.”

A pause, and she tilted her head. “The world will be engulfed in chaos and despair if you don’t,” she replied. “I’m the Demon Lord, and you’re the hero. That’s all there is to it.”

“Like hell!” Alba’s outburst, not entirely unexpected, rang deafeningly around the room. She heard his breath hitch, before he spoke again. “I don’t want to fight you, Ruki. We’re friends.”

She blinked and ducked her head, unable to suppress the trembling little smile that rose to her lips. “But you’re the only one who can stop the Demon Lord… Alba-san.” And suddenly she was Ruki again, looking up to a back much taller than hers. “The legendary Hero Creasion isn’t here anymore. None of the other heroes could make it to here. And…” She steeled herself to drive the final nail into her own coffin. “Ros-san isn’t… here anymore, either. Isn’t that right, Alba-san?”

The comment had struck home, she knew, as a pained expression flickered across Alba’s face. “Ros-san wanted the world to be at peace,” Ruki went on, without allowing herself to ease off. “That’s why… That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

“Hey, Alba-san. Don’t you want to save the world?”

A very, very long time passed much too quickly, while she waited. And Alba drew his sword at last, the harsh sound of sliding metal still ringing as he answered, his voice filled with bitter resolve.

“…I do. I’m going to save the world, Ruki. No, Demon Lord Rchimedes.”

A small smile of satisfaction, at his decision. A final smile, for the times they had shared together.

And the Demon Lord Rchimedes raised an arm to play her role, the black cloak billowing outwards.

“Prepare yourself, Hero A—”

“And, cut!”

* * *

“Ros-san! We were just getting into it!” Ruki complained, popping out from the bottom half of her modified adult suit and sending the top half flying. Behind her, Alba wiped his forehead of sweat, slightly unnerved by the dark turn their play had taken.

“I think Ruki got a little _too_ into it…” he muttered. Taken unaware, he was suddenly knocked backwards as the top half of Ruki's adult suit slammed into him.

“Good work, Ruki,” Ros said absentmindedly, ruffling her hair while ignoring Alba’s situation, although that probably had something to do with the fact that he was staring intently at a pile of papers in his other hand. “I didn’t expect that ad-lib, but you made it work with the script. Just one question though. …Why did you have to make it sound like I was dead or something?”

“Huh?! I didn’t mean to! I just thought if I said something like that, it’d raise the drama and the tension!”

“Don’t say such morbid stuff when you’re in-character, then!”

“I mean, we’re doing this because the king asked us to, right? We’re gonna perform it in a lot of places to advertise the new Hero Alba books!”

“What’s with this excuse-like exposition all of a sudden…”

“Anyway, it’s not supposed to sound like you’re dead, Ros-san!” Ruki’s eyes seemed watery all of a sudden, as if she could not bear the thought. “The official reason is that you were called away for work so you couldn’t be there for the final battle.”

“ _Misleading the audience!_ ”


End file.
